A vital piece of the puzzle
by easia51
Summary: post gauntlet. Rush was scared to miss a vital piece of the puzzle by skipping the galaxy. What if it had been found? and ofcourse what happens to everyone on the Destiny after bying put into stasis pods.How does Eli handle being alone on the ship?


****_It has been a while since I wrote a fanfiction. I have been reading and watching stargate universe for a while now. I found some inspiration (It certainly is not because I found someone who looks like Rush...absolutely not) and this suddenly flashed out of my fingers and into a document. _

_This sets place after gauntlet, in which Rush makes it explicitely known that Destiny was launched to solve a mystery, not by arriving at some ultimate destination where all the questions are answered at one time, but by accumulating knowledge bit by bit. That if they skip this galaxy they could be missing a vital piece of the puzzle. _

_I hope you like and if you don't...Well, I liked writing it anyway._

**A vital piece of the puzzle**

Eli Wallace stood on the observation deck, staring of into space, calculations running in his mind. If he was off by even an thousand of a percentage everything had been for nothing. The jump to another galaxy, it had been his idea. Everyone locked up in a pod, also his idea. Him staying behind to fix the last pod, his last idea. Not forever of course. No he was not giving up. But it had been his last decision made while he still had someone to talk to. It had been a week now and while everyone slept he had been working on the pod. That damn pod. It was repaired but it wouldn't start up. Something was amiss but Eli did not know what. The lack of light did not help him either. One could say he was quite frustrated by this lonely life.

Crouched down he checked the crystals of the pod. They seemed intact. "alright, then…" His fingers went to the conductors and felt if they were connected. As small sound was made Eli sharpened his senses. With glee he looked at the pod as it lighted up. "Yes! Yes! I knew it!" Eli cheered. The lights flickered and then shut down again. "What? Wait! No! Shit" Within a second Eli was at the console, checking the pod state. 'offline' it read. "no no no no" Eli hissed under his breath.

It had been the first promise of progress and Eli was sure that he would figure it out. He still had a week but surely it wouldn't take that long. 'what if… what if it does take that long. What if it becomes too cold to breathe? What if air runs out? What if…' Eli stopped his thoughts there. He would make it, end of discussion.

Eli ate his bowl of what was supposed to be potatomash and a glass of tomato sap while he stared at Rush in his pod. He looked quite peaceful. 'Would they dream?' he wondered. 'What if one of them was having a nightmare, A three year long nightmare?' Eli shook his head. It did not matter. He could not help them and he had other issue that needed his time. He lifted his glass to Rush. "to a good dream" he chucked the tomato juice down.

He was going mad. It had to be. While he lay on his bed, trying to sleep, he heard someone giggle. It was his imagination. That was what he was telling himself. In the end he did not believe himself, didn't want to believe it partially. He desperately wanted to see someone, anyone. Hear a voice other than his own. He searched for someone but did not find anyone. He shook his head and walked back to his bed. He practically fell in his bed, only to find a girl sitting there.

He jumped back. He shook his head, thinking that the view would shatter of fade. He turned around, seeing nothing strange. He looked back and she was still sitting there, just casual, calm. "What the" Eli stuttered. He did not recognize her. He had never seen her. She was not one of the crew. He pointed at her, almost accusingly. "Who are you?" Tension hung in the air as she stood up and walked up to him. He backed away and she grinned a bit. "You may call me Easia."

With almost unnatural grace she was at his side and with a lingering touch at the base of his neck she went past. She walked into one of the corridors. He ran after her as he saw her taking a turn. "Where did you come from?" He asked as he took the turn, only finding an empty corridor.

The next time she appeared he was working on the pod. He saw her in the corner of his eye. When he turned around she was looking at Rush before turning to him.

"What are you?" The words were said before he had thought about them.

She shrugged. "What do you think I am?"

Eli gazed at her and smiled a bit. "I would not know. You appear and disappear like you don't really exist. You might be an alien race. You haven't attacked though but perhaps you are searching for information. I do not really believe that though. You could have gotten that information without ever coming in my view. The only reason would be to say to me to let you go through the stargate. Perhaps you could have done that without me too. But since you also haven't asked me that either I guess I'm going mental. You could be an instrument of my mind. A trick, an illusion that is formed to compensate for the lack of…"Eli nodded at the pods. "I haven't heard anyone's voice since they stepped in those things. Then again, if you were why would my mind choose for someone I do not know? Why not some friend of long ago or a family member?"

The girl interrupted him with a snicker. "You ramble." She said as defense. "Do I seem hostile to you?" she asked and answered for him "No, I don't and do I look like an illusion?"

She sat down next to his light so he could see her better. He estimated her 24 of age maybe a bit older. She had deep green eyes that held the promise of a great knowledge. Her face was framed by amber curls which reached to her shoulders. She was clothed in a light green dress that looked like silk.

"Actually, you do look like an illusion" Eli said with a smile, as he wondered where the dress came from.

"I would tell you my story if we had the time for it but your little project needs to be finished soon." She said while she laid her hand on his shoulder. 'Feels pretty real' Eli noted. "You can tell it while I work here." He said. "Well genius, I could but I would prefer to do that at the console because that thing is as good as it is going to get. You need to overwrite Destiny."

"Alright girl" said as he began typing on the console.

"Easia" she said with a scowl.

"Alright Easia" Eli started anew, "tell me how you came on this ship, unnoticed by anyone."

At this Easia grinned. "As I recall I was very noticed by everyone. I guess you remember the animal you found the last time you gated out. You had, and I quote, found some edibles. I guess that include the falcon your team caught."

Eli looked up at her. "What does that matter? The animal came loose, flew through some corridors and went into some room that Destiny closed down. When Greer came in the room it was gone."

Easia nodded and walked to his other side, picked up a book and selected one of the pages. She lay it to the side of the screen of the console. Eli stopped typing for a moment and glanced at the page.

"Where did you get a D&D book from?" He asked as he glanced at the statistics of the druid.

Easia walked over to Volkners pod. "His room" she said as she walked back. "Anyway," She continued. "You have the right to ask where I come from and so I'll answer but they don't have to know." Easia said while she gestured to the crew in the pods. "You have them written down in books and I guess my mother was one and so am I. I am what you call a druid." She said as her arms started to show feathers.

Eli gawked at her. This could not be real. Myths did not just become real at times like these. He pinched himself but Easia did not disappear nor her feathers. At that moment everything became black.

a druid? D&D? nutstuff right? perhaps not

I hope you liked it. I hope there aren't too many mistakes in it. I hope for a second chapter ^^


End file.
